Howdy folks, I'm Bob Schrupp physical therapist, Brad Heineck physical therapist
Together we are the most famous physical therapists on the internet, in our opinion of course, Bob
Today Brad, we're gonna talk about nine massage ball exercises that you can do to put your massage therapist out of business
Bob we're gonna have feedback
Yeah we're gonna have people mad at us, no we don't really mean that, what we mean is that
There's times where you can't have a massage therapist with you, maybe when you're on a trip, or maybe you can't afford one
Right now, so we're gonna give you some alternative things
You can try and these are stuff
You know things that you might even have at home that you can try but before we do that Brad
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This is all they're just turning around, but Bob, what about the massage?
Alright, so the massage so what you're gonna need and one of the reasons you want to do this, by the way
I want to mention this is that there's a lot of professional athletes have found out now by keeping muscle pliability
Keeping those muscles pliable you can actually can perform better and you're gonna have a longer career. Sure
And of course Tom Brady is one of the main examples of this, he wrote the book "The TB12 Method"
He mentions muscle pliability in here probably 7,000 times. Oh, really?
Yeah, so he uses a foam roller, but these work just as well. And in fact, I got another example here
I took this article out of the paper
We're in Minnesota here right now, and this is Jamal Crawford. He plays for the Timberwolves
He uses a softball like this after each game, before each game and after each game
To knead the muscles and get him ready for the game. Is that a professional team? Yeah, Oh good, what do you mean
Is that a professional team
Are the Packers a professional team? Yeah give me a break
This pliability is nothing new. It's just that they're popular and they're high level players
And massage therapists they'll say well we've been preaching that for years and it is true. It is true. It's gonna extend their career
So here's some options that you can try. You could try a good old tennis ball
These are kind of nice because they have a little bit of give to them
They're not super hard, the lacrosse ball if you're really a little more aggressive, right get in deeper. Yeah. To be honest
I like different balls on different areas to be honest with you
We've got the softball
We got this one actually this is a ball you can purchase, we got it in our Amazon links below
It's from OPTP. It's kind of a good size and soft
Specifically made for this. Yeah, and then we got the ball in a sock
Which we'll show you in a little bit what that's for
So we're gonna start off, go from kind of foot and work our way up. Sure
So the first one that I just did, you know, I was kind of surprised at this one Brad it actually felt really good
I was having a little bit of foot discomfort when I run, it seems to go away after I run for awhile
And I did this before I ran and actually I didn't have any pain at all then
so you just take a ball put it on the floor and you can take it down there Liz and
You can roll back and forth so you're getting into the arch
So you can go back and forth, you know, either longitudinally or
Diagonally or side-to-side direction. Both directions
But you can get up into the metatarsals too which is the ball of your foot, or up in here
Now we're sitting right now
but you can actually stand and do this too, whoops there it goes, put a little more weight on it and
Then I got into the heel too Brad, sure now I am finding that this one is not hard enough for me
I would rather have a lacrosse ball first. Yeah, right
So like you said different body parts are gonna and you'll know by the feel of it
It may feel a little aggressive but as you do it, it should be one of those things where it hurts so good
Yeah, that's a good phrase Brad. All right, then we're gonna go into shin splints
Now if you got shin splints or you're trying to prevent shin splints, especially the anterior type
That's the muscle right in here. The anterior tip you're going to want to saws this area here
And if you wanted to get the posterior you can go back here you get them both
So again, I would probably yeah, I would take either a lacrosse ball or you're taking the softball aren't you? That's pretty aggressive
I just wanted to show you could do that or this one. You can see it's much more squishy and
You know, I'm thinking I feel better with this one
But there may be some really hardcore guys out there, right that really want to get in deep
Do you want to try a lacrosse ball once or is that not enough?
Well, I can try it. You think it's gonna be too much, don't you?
Actually, as long as I control my weight, it actually feels good because it is getting in there
So yeah, it's especially oh, this is good on the side there. I got a tight spot right there, Bob
Yeah, when I was starting to have a little bit of difficulty with shin splints, I started to feel it
Yeah, now get the posterior. Excellent Brad.
I did these for a couple days and it just you know
A lot of these issues if you jump on them right away before they get to be too serious they go away
If you've got a full-blown case of shin splints, then they may take a while before
Yeah, that is key is getting it in the early stages
So not only is he kind of treating posterior shin splints, which is in the back
But he's also getting the calf muscle which is a great one to get
Because this is one that gets real sore especially on the weekend athlete. There you go, Brad, wow
See that I got a scratch right there. I don't know how I got that but it's there. Well you were just biking
Yeah it was out in the woods mountain biking I suppose I wasn't even thinking so then we'll go into the
We'll both do this one Brad. I'll go up here. We're gonna do the hamstring
Oh, yeah, one of my favorites, on the hamstring I definitely like the larger ball
Because it's really hard to get, it's such a large muscle and again
I went back and forth like this and I also go along the length and I did that one this morning
Can't even see can ya. Yeah pull that material over
So again, I'm going back and forth working my way down the muscle and I'm also going lengthwise
Both directions, both directions directions some people actually Brad do this
They actually if you're getting right where that attaches to the SIT bone, they'll sit on it.
Yeah, and they'll stay off the SIT bone and just apply the pressure, it'll work this area here because this is often an area
That like my wife has trouble with this that she hasn't mentioned it in a while.
That's interesting I wonder if it's gone away. But anyway, she has trouble with where the hamstrings attach to the SIT bone to the pelvis and
so this would be a great one for her to do to loosen that up before she does any walking or running, I experienced
immediate relief doing this after a run once I had
A very painful tight spot right there and I did this technique and I was smiling within about a minute, Wow, yeah
Hard to believe Brad, it's a true story!
All right, how about tensor fasciae latae?
So that's up in here kind of attaches into the IT band, right where this white stripe goes. Yeah
well, that's the IT band
The tensor fasciae latae is up here. And some people say don't massage the IT band because it's a you know
It's an inert object. It's not a muscle and they just do the tensor fasciae latae
Some people do the IT band, so
I say do what works for you
Yeah, I think if you stretch the IT band it's stretching the tensor fasciae latae because it's tied into it
I'm telling you what though if I'm gonna do the IT band, I'm gonna use a softer ball
yeah, and I'm probably gonna use a smaller ball or
Especially because I'm getting into that tensor fasciae latae. So we kind of at an angle
You see both Brad and I are not on our sides
We're kind of a little bit almost on our backs a little bit, back and on our side and we're working that, I know you
Can't see it on me, I've got everything covered up here. So
Well thank God. Just kidding. It's a family show! I know I know
Sometimes I digress
How about the hip flexor Brad so that too is going to be you know in this area here you're gonna be laying down onto it
You're not going to do this on a bed. You're gonna be on a firm floor now
This is a muscle that gets tight in a lot of people because we are a sitting society
And so when we sit all day this muscle shortens up, the hip flexor, so it's a great one
To work out and you know give you better posture. I'll make it easier for you to stand up straight
So which one did you like end up liking Brad?
Which ball, oh you used the softball?
I use both but actually this works a little better, but you know
You can use a softball. It's gonna depend on your body shape and
Composition so and with some of these, you know, you'd find out you could just get by with one type of ball
Right. I did this one this morning Brad. I actually did the hip adductors
That's the muscles in the inner thighs here and I did it like this
I just put them both together and I rolled back and forth so I was getting both of them at the same time
and again, I needed a little bit of a
Larger ball for that, I used actually that blue one
My muscles again were a little sore from biking yesterday and I wanted to go for a run this morning
So I wanted to get things loosened up before I even went out, so my legs wouldn't feel dead
So then okay we can flip over and go to the quadricep again I like a larger ball for that. Sure
It's just a larger muscle and usually it's just easier to use a larger ball
I'm gonna have to flip around the other way here
Because hit the microphone otherwise, I'll hit my mic no matter what I do here
How's it going there Brad? Going wonderful. I'm working that rectus femoris right now
So again, you can go side to side you can go up
I even like to bring the leg up like this and
You can kind of focus on that, the muscle's getting a little bit of stretch while you're stretching it with the ball too
So I'm working my way all the way down it, this must be a strange thing if people start watching right here, they're going
What are you doing?
This is a family show, yes we must be professional Bob. Okay, Brad, why don't you go ahead and grab this one
The ball in a sock
Oh, yeah, and this one works out great for if you're getting some of those knots up on your upper back
Brad's gonna go ahead and demonstrate that. So you simply you can put you know tennis ball la crosse ball
Just drop it in a sock. Make sure it's a clean one
And we're just gonna use it
Right on that trigger point there or wherever you need it and get it up against the wall
And that's why you use a sock, you can dangle it down and it won't drop to the floor
Oh there I'm on it and you'll know, I can feel it right there
I'm putting on a fair amount of weight in as you can see, I'm leaning into it
Oh, feels, you know, it's one of those hurts so good and get down
So this is where you can really control the pressure because you're standing as opposed to if you're laying down. Yeah, right. That's a little more
It's quite a bit more aggressive if you're laying on it, but I've had people just matter of fact this last week
I had a patient who needed to do it laying down because yep he wanted it aggressive
Yeah, and the last one I'm going to show you
This is the one I always like cuz you know
I stretch my chest all the time because if you don't you start getting into this poor posture here
but it seems like it helps even more if you can massage that area a little bit here
so I just take the ball against the wall like this and I roll up and down like this right and it just it really
works that chest muscle really well, pectoralis major, yup that's a larger muscle and
You want to keep it healthy. Well and this makes it a lot easier for you to keep your good posture
There we go. We got the nine massage ball exercises in Brad. Nobody got hurt, right? Exactly. Whoa. Alright thanks for watching.